South Korea reached a world cup semi final out of nowhere. Russia will at least reach round 16. It is a minimum. No need to have an excellent team to achieve that. A group without world class opponent will be enough.
South Korea had a great manager at the time who had just taken a team to the Semis of a World Cup. Russian managers do not have anywhere near the same prestige or track record so I don't really think the comparison is a fair one.
Lol the guy did it with netherlands. And everybody saw how South Korea managed to reach semi finals let's be serious. You wanna bet that Russia reaches round 16? If they do you wear the avatar of my choice till the end of world cup?
Read my previous posts. I think they can make it but I would like to see the draw and how they are playing heading into it before making a clear judgment. As of right now it does not look encouraging to me but that is my two cents in the present moment.
These are terrible comparisons. How was France doing in the run up to the World Cup ? How was South Africa doing ? If you watched the Confederations cup in 2009 South African played very well, much better than Russia did. It took Brazil until the 82nd minute from a free kick to beat S. Africa in the semi final. the South AFricans played very well. THey then drew with Spain in the 3rd place match and lost in extra time. Japan made it to the final of the Confed cup they hosted, while Korea beat both Australia and Mexico in that tournament My point is that there was a RECORD of South Africa, Korea, Japan, France all playing well before their WC, so it wasn't actually a surprise they did well. The record with Russia currently is that they are horrible.
They will get a group to go through. Either a group with 3 very average teams or a group with one good team and 2 minnows.
Confederations cup is bs...france won it in 2001 with few players we laugh about here and then lost from first round with most of their world stars. Germany won it few months ago with their team C. Brazil shined in 2013 before being raped live in front of the world. And they shouldn't even have reached the semis. Russia will step up.
It's not about having a cristal ball. It is about logic. You still think in 2017 that the draws are pure coincidence? Seriously?
Peru is better with better tactics and so is Iceland. Saudi Arabia can surprise. So in that hypothetical Group I can see them finishing with 3 points.
lol then let's make a bet once the draw is out Russia only lost one game on 3 against a 1/4 finalist in Brazil and you think they will lose to 3/4 of the teams at home in a world cup they receive. That is a philosophy.
I said they can draw three times and show how mediocre they really are. Would not surprise me at all if the lost to Peru or Iceland really, but it is all just a guessing game and what if game at this point in time.
I did not say they would do 9/9 but they will go through. That is not the same. Whether they do it with 5 points 6 or 7 points is not important.
I will wait until June to figure out where they are in the scheme of things. You seem set in your ways to give them the round of 16 at this point. Good for you. I am done talking about Russia until June.
Who are the Russian players at the level of Zidane, Thuram, Henry, Desailly, Djorkaeff, etc? These players were starring in the top teams of the time leading to WC98, I don't see any Russian players of equal significance in club football.
I'm pretty savvy with knowing players, but I also know a few names from the CSKA Moscow club. Russia is anonymous... They are much worse than a 150+ mln country should be.
Football in Russia is there second sport, but with 150+ mil people they probably should be better. However you wanna talk embarrassing? I can name a country with 180+ mil people in which football is the number 1 sport and they have never gotten past the Rd of 16. If you haven't guessed, it's Nigeria, now that's pretty sad.
You were comparing them with France, who actually won the tournament in 98. Russia is a team that can make the round of 16 depending on who their rivals are, should they get Spain and Colombia for example, I will take the bet that they don't make it out of the group. Let's see how the draw pans out.
I don't want to jump in the middle of the back and forth about Russia's chances but my own view is that Russia has roughly a 60% chance of advancing from its group. In other words, more likely than not they will advance but it is far from anything that can be considered assured. I give Russia 60% odds for the reasons below; 1- Mathematically, all things being equal, you begin with a 50% chance of advancing from the group stage as 2 out of 4 teams advance. 2- Since Russia are seeded as hosts, they will avoid a top seed in their group. Which means their rivals will be from pot 2, pot 3, and pot 4. 3- Based on what I have seen, I rate Russia at the level of an average pot 3 team. 4- As World Cup hosts, it would be reasonable to expect Russia to give its team special attention until the World Cup to prepare it adequately and avoid embarrassing itself. In fact, in this regard, Russia's confederations cup failure might have served as a useful wake up call. 5- When the World Cup starts and Russia host the event, the privilege of being hosts will bump Russia's level of play viz a viz an opponent by at least half if not an entire tier. In other words, if I rate Russia as an average pot 3 side, as hosts under the totality of circumstances, it would be reasonable to expect them to play at the level of a pot 2 team. 6- If Russia does play at the level of a pot 2 team, then unless it ends up with a very bad draw, it will likely finish with more points than the pot 3 and pot 4 sides in its group and might even win the group depending on the pot 2 side it is drawn with. In any case, Russia's chances of advancing would be pretty high.
I'm thinking the 2018 World Cup will not end well for Spain. Several players are on the out (threatening finishing their careers) for several reasons, plus the entire Catalan connection may be severed. Players like Iniesta, Busquets, Ramos, Busquets are among those rumoured to be out. This could end like France 2010...
I think it is not rigged. If they manipulate draws, both South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014 could have had much easier groups, than what has been dished for them.